Social development
Community Marks Fifth Anniversary of Violent Eviction
About 150 members of the former Dey Krahorm community in Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon district marked the fifth anniversary on Friday of the day mechanical excavators, security guards and authorities destroyed their homes to make room for a real estate project. Much like on past anniversaries, ...
Khuon Narim and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/community-marks-fifth-anniversary-of-violent-eviction-51017/
Growing Unease Over Direction of the Country, Survey Finds
There was a shift of almost seismic proportions between January and November 2013 as the number of people who believe the country is being steered in the right direction fell sharply, while the number of discontented citizens rose, according to a new report. Launching its annual ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/growing-unease-over-direction-of-the-country-survey-finds-51034/
Interior Ministry Says No to Freedom Park Rally
The government will consider a planned union rally on Sunday of several thousand people at Freedom Park in Phnom Penh an attempt to “overthrow the government,” Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said on Friday. Phnom Penh municipality rejected the request to hold the rally, but ...
Sinary Sany
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/interior-ministry-says-no-to-freedom-park-rally-51032/
Security Forces Get in Line for Chinese New Year ‘Ang Pao’ Cash
Chinese New Year is coming and crowds of uniformed police, military police, soldiers and even the stony-faced troops of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit will be queuing with expectation at the gates of the rich and powerful to receive their annual “ang pao” envelopes. In ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/security-forces-get-in-line-for-chinese-new-year-ang-pao-cash-51022/
Tea Banh Tells Armed Forces to Defend Government
Defense Minister Tea Banh used the annual meeting of national military police in Phnom Penh on Wednesday to reiterate that the armed forces would remain committed to defending Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government in the ongoing political dispute with the opposition CNRP, local media and ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tea-banh-tells-armed-forces-to-defend-government-50987/
Legal actions to be taken against protest leaders: Interior Ministry
Ministry of Interior warned that legal measures would be taken against those who would hold protests, defying a ban imposed by the government. The warning was made yesterday after the leaders of nine labor unions insisted that they would hold protests, which are scheduled for January ...
The Cambodia Herald
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NTdmZGU2OGFmMmR
Unions to Proceed With Mass Rally in Freedom Park Despite Ban
Unions planning a mass rally at Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Sunday to call for the release of 23 detainees and a higher minimum wage in the garment industry say they will proceed with the event despite City Hall’s decision Thursday to deny permission. The nine ...
Rainsy eyes seat at UN rights review meeting
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy left for Europe yesterday evening to attend a UN Human Rights Council review on Cambodia in Geneva and to lobby European Union officials to take a stronger stance against the government, he said before departure. Rainsy plans on attending the Universal Periodic ...
Meas Sokchea and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rainsy-eyes-seat-un-rights-review-meeting
Chainsaws confiscated by villagers
Ethnic Phnong villagers in Mondulkiri province’s Sen Monorom district will file a complaint with rights group Adhoc today against three men who allegedly illegally logged 10 cubic metres of timber from their forest. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/chainsaws-confiscated-villagers
Civil society groups appeal for international intervention for the release of 23 protesters
181 national and international non-governmental organizations handed over their petitions to foreign embassies on Thursday to seek the release of 23 people who were arrested in protest crackdowns. A group of some 50 representatives marched along the streets and submitted the petitions to the German, Sweden ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=MzYwOTcwZDY5ZjV
Union leader violates protest law: Phnom Penh official
Phnom Penh official on Wednesday said that union leader Chea Mony violated the protest law and protest ban which was imposed by the government recently for the security concern. The Deputy Governor made the comment after Chea led march along the streets to mark the ...
The Cambodian Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=M2MxNjBiZGRhZWU
Child Rapes Account for Majority of Sex Attacks Last Year
The number of reported rapes recorded by human rights group Adhoc fell by about 24 percent in 2013 compared to the previous year, though the rape of children and minors continued to account for the majority of attacks. Chuon Chamrong, head of Adhoc’s women’s section, ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/child-rapes-account-for-majority-of-sex-attacks-last-year-50995/
Impoverished Cambodians for sale
Many Cambodian women arrive in South Korea or China for marriage, only to find themselves being chosen as mistresses, say labour rights activists. While young Cambodian men, who travel to Thailand to work on fishing boats, often fall prey to drug abuse. Loss of land, debt, ...
Michelle Tolson
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/01/impoverished-cambodians-sale/
More Plots Readied for Land Titles at Boeng Kak
Phnom Penh deputy governor Khuong Sreng oversaw the demarcation of five more plots of land Thursday in the city’s Boeng Kak neighborhood, where at least 48 families are still fighting for formal land titles. Some 3,000 families have been evicted from the neighborhood since the city ...
Mech Dara and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/more-plots-readied-for-land-titles-at-boeng-kak-51002/
ANZ sugar fallout broadens
Shareholders will want answers from ANZ bank after it was revealed this week that the banking giant’s joint venture in Cambodia financed ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat’s controversial sugar plantation, the Responsible Investment Association Australia (RIAA) said yesterday. Environmental audit documents obtained by the Post on Tuesday ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/anz-sugar-fallout-broadens
The Plight of Cambodia's Garment Workers, On Display on a Manhattan Sidewalk
Last week, on a busy sidewalk in Times Square, a hunched figure in a surgical mask labored at a hand-operated sewing machine. This anonymous worker was Khmer-American artist Kat Eng. According to her website, she sat in front of the flagship location of clothing giant H&M ...
Sarah Goodyear
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2014/01/plight-cambodias-garment-workers-laid-bare-manhattans-sidewalks/8187/
Chea Vichea Remembered 10 Years After Slaying
Ten years ago Wednesday, union leader Chea Vichea walked to his favorite newsstand in front of Wat Lanka to read the day’s headlines: Prime Minister Hun Sen had ordered spending cuts, health officials were trying to handle the first outbreak of bird flu in Southeast ...
Khy Sovuthy and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chea-vichea-remembered-10-years-after-slaying-50962/
Chinese Push Sesan Dam Talks With Hun Sen
The chairman of the Chinese company whose subsidiary will construct the Lower Sesan 2 dam met with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday to inform him that the dam would be completed in three years’ time, Mr. Hun Sen’s assistant said. Zhang Tingke, vice president of ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chinese-push-sesan-dam-talks-with-hun-sen-50978/
Petitioners set for Round 2 of showdown with City Hall
Protesters were due to march on four foreign embassies this morning to deliver petitions calling for the release of the 23 detainees held at the remote Correctional Centre 3 after being arrested during the crackdown earlier this month. The march – to the embassies of Germany, ...
Mom Kunthear and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/petitioners-set-round-2-showdown-city-hall
Slum improvements planned
Civil society groups and Phnom Penh municipal officials next month will hold a workshop to decide which designated slum areas will be the focus of a planned pilot project to improve living standards. On Tuesday night, Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatavong and members of civil society ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/slum-improvements-planned
Digital Divide staff back on job
A week-long strike involving more than 100 work-study participants at Phnom Penh-based NGO Digital Divide Data ended on Sunday following talks conducted by the social enterprise’s CEO, who flew in from New York to attend to the matter, participants and management said yesterday. Program participants, who ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/digital-divide-staff-back-job
CNRP denied access to suspects
Phnom Penh Municipality has rejected a request from the Cambodia National Rescue Party to visit the 23 detainees held in Kampong Cham province’s Tropaing Phlong prison, also known as Correctional Centre 3. In a letter sent to the CNRP dated January 21, Phnom Penh Municipal Court ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-denied-access-suspects
After Arrests, NGOs Continue Petitioning to ‘Free the 23′
Following the arrest of 11 activists on Tuesday as they attempted to deliver a petition to the U.S. and French embassies seeking the release of 23 jailed protesters, NGO representatives quietly delivered similar petitions to the Japanese Embassy and European Union headquarters Wednesday. The petitioners, representing ...
Aun Pheap and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-arrests-ngos-continue-petitioning-to-free-the-23-50966/
ANZ Implicated in Sugar Plantation Evictions
Three NGOs on Wednesday called on ANZ Royal Bank to help the hundreds of families who have lost farmland to a sugar plantation that the bank helped to finance in Kompong Speu province. The NGOs also made public a 2013 social and environmental impact assessment of ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/anz-implicated-in-sugar-plantation-evictions-50980/